Sanctuary
by Ironneko
Summary: In the manga, Ranma defeated Saffron. Here he also does. But at a price... Dark, you'll see in a bit...
1. The Dragon's Blessing

Sanctuary

by Ironneko

Disclaimer: all characters belong to their respective creators. The plot however is all mine (at least I think so...)

" " denotes speech.

' ' denotes thoughts.

Prologue, part one: The Dragon's Blessing

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The fight against Saffron had taken its toll on the pigtailed martial artist's body as the teen struggled to remain standing.

"Why... don't... you... just... fall... down!"

The Phoenix King was in a similar predicament as well, having his ascendence ceremony interrupted had seriously crippled the extent of his powers and he was forced to fight with limited options. However the battle was steadily wearing his opponent out whilst he remained unharmed, or at least that is how he appeared to be. In truth, his regenerative abilities had been a lifesaver, given that without them he would have fallen a long time ago.

Ranma was going to lose the battle, and he was well aware of it. He just needed to buy enough time so Ryouga could get to the spring and collect the water needed to bathe the doll-like Akane in order to restore her previous form.

'This is not good... I can't reach the spring, and Saffron just keeps lobbing those stupid fireballs all around me,' the teen thought as he continued evading the fiery projectiles being hurled his way, 'I'm not going to be able to keep this up for long.'

He winced as a searing ball of flame flew past his left shoulder, slightly charring the skin of his unprotected body.

"Ugh... damn... I can't hold on much longer..." he muttered to himself as he wove his way around the incoming flames. The son of Genma Saotome (a fact that would remain true no matter how badly he himself wanted to deny it) directed a troubled look towards the higher part of Jusendo, over the small plateau where he was currently fighting the bird-man. He was glad to see his rival/friend (which was still open to discussion) was more than halfway up, but he knew he just had to buy Ryouga some more time before he could get to the top.

Gripping the artifact that had allowed him to survive this long, Ranma steeled himself for what he believed would be the definitive moment in the battle. Summoning his ki and using it to wield the magical freezing power of the Gekkaja, he stared directly into the eyes of his opponent and, for a second, the fiery noble felt a semblance of fear.

The fighter leapt into action as he instantly closed the distance between himself and the Phoenix, a minor whirlwind of ice had begun to envelop his form as his battle aura burned brightly, 'I've got one chance to make this work, if it doesn't...' he didn't want to think of the outcome should he fail.

"You fool! You think you can stand up to the king of Phoenix Mountain?" Saffron, once again, gathered from within himself a gigantic sphere of flame and prepared to utterly incinerate the presumptuous landling who had dared to interrupt his ascension ceremony.

'Now!' thought Ranma as he moved into position the precise instant that Saffron released the fireball he had conjured.

"HIRYUU HYUU TOPPA!" he screamed at the top of his lungs as he grasped the full power of the Gekkaja and used it to create a modified version of the Heavenly Dragon Ascension Wave.

This time the whirlwind did not come alone. A small funnel shot out towards the Phoenix King and pierced through his chest, taking him completely by surprise and blowing him away as the power generated by his flame kept fueling the ferocious winds.

As he rode the twister, confident that he had finally been able to best his opponent, Ranma took a second to check up on the tiny doll he held so tightly within the confines of his very own hand. What had once been his fiancee was now nothing more than a porcelain construct, as fragile as the material it was made of.

That second would prove to be his undoing.

With no warning whatsoever, Ranma was ripped right out of the current by the Phoenix God himself, who had apparently recovered from the previous attack and was now in what could qualify as a 'berzerker rage'.

Caught by surprise, the mortal dropped the figurine he had held so carefully. He instantly disengaged from his captor in a desperate attempt to beat gravity in order to reach what was left of Akane while the kami stared at him with a look of unbridled wrath.

Just as Ranma was catching up to her, Saffron summoned the biggest fireball he could muster with his power, and aimed it towards the falling teen.

"TENKA SHUNMETSU KOUKYUU DAN!"

The battle had been carried over from the top of Jusendo into the valley of the cursed springs. The guide exited his hut and was shocked to find that not only was there someone falling towards an uncursed spring, which held the most amount of chaotic magic as the spirits tended to create as many curses as possible, but that the Phoenix Mountain ruler's magic was about to come into contact with that same spring.

The guide quickly took off towards the Amazon village while muttering to himself every single prayer he knew and a few others he made up as well. Grateful that his daughter was in someone else's custody, he deserted the cursed training ground in order to avoid whatever disaster would follow.

Before Ranma Saotome's unbelieving eyes, the doll that was once Akane Tendo broke into thousands of pieces as it impacted with the water of the spring just below him.

He did not feel the searing pain that would have accompanied the scorching of his flesh due to the fireball, nor did he see the flash of light that followed after the resulting clash between Jusenkyo's magic and Saffron's own. All he saw was his fiancee breaking apart, over and over again...

The immortal Phoenix fell to his knees panting with exhaustion. That last attack had literally burned him out, and he could feel himself dying once again. He should have retrieved the Kinjakan, but he was far too furious at the time to think straight. As he submitted into the cold embrace of death while awaiting his following ressurrection, he couldn't help but smirk triumphantly. For Ranma Saotome was no longer part of this world.

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An unconscious Ranma was floating in a black void. No sounds could be heard anywhere. No place could be seen nearby. Just the martial artist and a veritable ocean of black that engulfed him.

A pale glow appeared before the fighter as the abstract lights slowly began to take shape.

"Your destiny beckons you Ranma Saotome," a powerful voice echoed throughout the entire domain, "though it is still before your time, this world can wait no longer. Hatred, Terror and Destruction have begun ravaging the land already while Sin, and Lies still fight over the underworld. Only you hold the key to make this world into a true Sanctuary."

A talon made of pure bone extended from within what could now barely pass as a dragon, and released a small burst of magical energy.

The bone spirit, which was said to contain part of the very essence of the caster, was one of the most powerful spells a mage could cast. It slowly advanced towards Ranma's inert form, and a bright light once again exploded from within him as it collided with the center of his chest.

"Go now my avatar, and may your power be enough to save us all..."

With those final words, the mythical beast known as Trang-Oul faded from existence.

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Author Notes:

I know you guys are gonna hate me for doing this but I was just dying to get this off my chest for a while. I've dropped enough blatant hints so anyone can guess what this will crossover with, and I'm rather pleased to say that I've only see a few of these in the fanfiction realm. If anyone can't figure out what the other element is... then you'd better hope I continue it ne?

The prologue is kind of short, basically because I don't plan on making regular updates here, even though I pretty much have this one all mapped out. E-mail me or drop a review so I know which ones to prioritize cause I have less free time by the minute, and I could use the feedback.

PS: Just a small comment, I did in fact update TSS around the fifth, but ff. net didn't count it as an update so I had to tinker with the options a bit till I got it to work... about 2 weeks later.

Anyway, you know the drill... comments, flames (constructive hopefully) anything to let me know someone actually reads this, e-mail me at either ironneko at hotmail. com or ironneko at yahoo. com. ar.

PS2: Do not send me attachments since I WILL delete any mails I receive that have more than 10k unless I have arranged it with someone.

Author Notes, take two:

A few changes here and there, basically fixed typos and punctuation errors.

Here's a few of the attack explanations, for people not familiar with them:

Hiryuu Hyuu Toppa: Roughly, Flying dragon human penetration.

Tenka Shunmetsu Kokyuu Dan: lightning fire, excellence, destruction, high-class, attack. So roughly, Imperial excellent destructive fire ball. 


	2. The Beginning of the End or

Sanctuary

by Ironneko

Disclaimer: Diablo 2 belongs to Blizzard, Ranma 1/2 to Takahashi Rumiko.

" " denotes speech

' ' denotes thoughts

Prologue, part two: The Beginning of the End (or is it The End of the Beginning?)

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Pain.

Both physical and emotional pain coursed through the young man sprawled across the ground.

'Dead.'

Ranma was too engrossed in his own thoughts to notice where he had ended up after the clash of mystic energies that resulted from his battle with Saffron.

'She's dead.'

As it was... the teen was still trying to cope with the mind-numbing changes that had ocurred in his life these past few minutes.

'She's just... dead.'

The image of the small porcelain doll, twisting through the air and falling towards the unmarked spring. The resounding splash, a sound that would echo within the recesses of his mind for years to come. The sound that marked the end of something that had never truly began for him.

Sheer disbelief at the sight of the fragile figurine bursting apart into millions of fragments due to the strain from crashing against the surface tension of the water.

'How can she be dead?'

The woman he loved. The woman he had always loved, ever since that first time she had offered her friendship. Ever since that first time she had welcomed him into her home.

'She just can't be dead... can she?'

The woman who would never smile for him again. The woman who would never know... just how much he loved her.

'Why did she die?'

Had Ranma been more aware of his surroundings, he might have been a little disturbed by the manner of place he had ended up in.

The Blood Moor had always been the home of zombies and poisonous quill rats. Monsters that enjoyed feasting on human flesh every once in a while, and roamed the land in search of prey.

There had also been reports from the sisterhood of rogues that lived near the cursed land, of groups of demons that had formed camps all over the place.

One of such creatures had been approaching the distracted fighter with every intention of having a well cooked human steak for dinner that night.

It paused a prudent distance away from his chosen pray and decided to study his soon-to-be-meal a bit more.

The fallen ones were not particularly known for having advanced deduction powers, but this one just knew, deep down inside, that it would not be a smart move to bother the human right now.

The unhealthy black aura that simply bled power onto the surroundings from within the pigtailed teenager's own soul might have had something to do with the small demon's decision.

'Why couldn't I... save her?'

He knew that something had changed inside him. He felt... different. As if some part of his basic self had been modified in some unknown way.

Right now though, he couldn't care less.

As Ranma wallowed in his despair, the small fallen one had made his way back to its camp and informed the resident shaman of the strange occurrence. Some basic survival skills were ingrained into every creature, such as "strength in numbers".

The shaman was surprised upon hearing of the glowing boy. Possessing a better-developed brain than most of the other cannon fodder, it tried to relate the tale to whatever general knowledge it possessed about such things.

Lots of people glowed, the shaman reasoned. 'Witches glow. White and red and blue. Animal-men glow sometimes, like fog. Barbarians glow, when scream.'

The shaman was having trouble with this discovery. The Paladins had a wide range of coloured auras... but none ever glowed black.

'No matter, silly trick. We kill anyway,' it finally decided, having exhausted himself due to the mental effort required to actually think about a problem, rather that just smashing a way through it.

So it was that the shaman put together a small hunting party, no more than eight other fallen ones, and set off towards the, still glowing, teen.

Ranma's aura grew larger by the minute, as he recalled every single happy experience he had enjoyed while living in Nerima. All the memories came coupled together with the pain of loss. His depression and despair were feeding his inhumanly large reserves of chi, as his mind kept drawing closer to the edge.

He finally spotted the approaching demons, who were closing in by the second as they prepared to finish off the strange human.

He laughed at that point. No mirth whatsoever invaded the hollow sound of an empty shell of a man, who had nothing more to live for.

"So you wanna kill me? Maybe that's the way... It ain't like I'm gettin' my honour back anyway. Might as well die a coward's death."

The fallen shaman saw its prey slump his shoulders in defeat and was visibly delighted while the hunting party kept the hasty pace towards the boy.

'Better when food no fight. Meat is softer, easier to eat.'

It would be wrong to say the shaman was overconfident. The truth was, it was too ignorant to have any trust in his abilities. It just lived by instinct, and instinct told it this battle was over before it began.

As it turned out, instinct had been correct, the little, red, man-like creature had just failed to comprehend the message.

As the rusted blades neared his body, Ranma let go of every single negative emotion that had wracked his soul ever since he had engaged the Phoenix God in mortal combat.

The release came with a deafening whisper.

"Perfect ShiShi Houkoudan..."

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The woman looked in complete shock as the monstrous energy column rose into the air, devastating part of the Blood Moor and destroying the silence that had reigned within the chambers with a thunderous boom.

'What in the name of Terror was that?' she mentally screamed as her mystical senses indicated power of a magnitude that escaped the boundaries of reason.

'What can be so powerful?' she thought to herself as she immediately cloaked herself in some robes while dashing towards the Outer Cloister. She needed to know what had happened.

An event of this magnitude could not go overlooked and damn her if she was going to be further surprised by this phenomenon.

Muttering a myriad of curses, the Maiden cautiously activated the Way Gate and concentrated on the Blood Moor.

Hoping whatever she'd encounter wouldn't take her any more by surprise, she stepped into the magical apparatus and vanished with a blink of light.

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As odd as it may have been, Ranma felt strangely at ease, while standing amongst the remains of the small band of demons. Blood, flesh and bones were strewn all around him, and yet... there was something harmonious about the whole scene. As if some sort of balance had been tilted in the correct way in some small measure.

It was then that the implications of what he had just done actually broke through the haze the previous encounter had generated within his mind, and he fell to his knees in a panic.

It was the smell that ultimately caused it. Now that his mind had caught up to what his body had done, the impact was too much for the young man to swallow as he violently retched onto the damp grass of the Blood Moor.

He finally calmed himself enough to sit back down after the last two dry heaves.

An errant breeze passed by, and Ranma's hair fluttered freely in the wind. The dragon's whisker lay charred beyond recognition, somewhere between the scorched debris that remained after the blast. The teen realised that his hair was not growing anymore, and assumed the effect of the magical potion he had ingested years before had finally worn off.

He passed his hands through his unbidden locks, pushing aside the white barrier that obstructed his view.

'Wait a sec. White?'

The young man forcefully grabbed a fistful of hair and determined both that it was his own hair, and that indeed it had gone from its previous midnight black colour to ashen white.

This was all proving to be very alarming for the young man, who decided he needed to sit down and find his center before attempting to deal with everything that had happened so far.

He did not notice, as he moved into a cross-legged position, how unnaturally unaffected he seemed, once again, about the amount of death that surrounded him.

Ranma entered into a meditative trance, as he focused his being and his inner energies into harmony. Or at least, that was what he attempted anyway. His chi felt... off. It was different in an indescribable way, he could not feel it very clearly.

The fighter concentrated his efforts into studying this anomaly and had been exercising his will for a few minutes when the most astonishing thing happened.

One of the few corpses that were left mostly intact had begun to move of its own accord.

Ranma immediately set his sight on the wobbling cadaver as the parts inside the flesh rearranged spontaneously.

Suddenly, the body exploded, and from within the dead confines rose something that would have made many grown men faint.

The teen, however, couldn't help but stare in morbid fascination, as the collection of body parts coalesced into a fully formed human skeleton.

The construct stood motionless. A veritable bone statue that stared straight at Ranma.

'It's like it's waiting for something.' An idea popped into his head right then. 'Could it be waiting for orders? From me?'

He decided to test this theory and was shocked senseless as the skeleton proceeded to sit down, after recieving the mental order to do so.

The shock was too much for Ranma's mind at the time and he lost his hold over his chi. The skeleton immediately fell apart into millions of fragments once again, as the power that anchored its form had been withdrawn.

"Amazing," a female voice interrupted Ranma's musings as a figure slowly came into focus as it neared the circle of bodies, "simply amazing. I never thought I'd see such skills in a Necromancer of your age."

The fighter turned just as the mysterious woman walked into the light. Beauty beyond compare met Ranma's eyes as he looked upon an absolutely stunning example of womanhood. Long, chestnut-coloured hair cascaded down the slightly tanned woman's back as a set of tight robes hugged her sensuous curves.

He broke out of his stupor once he recalled the word she had used.

"Necromancer? I'm Ranma Saotome, a martial artist! Not a necrosomething!"

The woman was taken aback by this revelation. Could this boy be telling the truth?

It was preposterous to even think it. No one could be so in tune with the Balance without receiving training from a true Priest of Rathma. But what if... one could?

If this boy... no... Not boy, but man. If this man were to be trained by one proficient in the knowledge of the black arts, he could go very far. And she would profit from such a person.

"I can help you develop your skills in ways you can only imagine. You would be able to bend spirits to your will, devise the most powerful poisons. And, perhaps, even cheat death."

The woman seemed possessed, as if some uncontrollable desire had suddenly taken hold of her.

"What?"

Ranma was stunned. Did this mean he could be with Akane again? Would he really be able to hold her in his arms again?

"It is said that the most powerful of Necromancers have the ability to ressurect others from death. Let me help you become all that you can be, Ranma."

"So I could see Akane again?" Hope blossomed once again in the eyes of the young warrior.

"Yes. If you become powerful enough, not even death can keep you from her." She assumed he meant a woman, as most men usually did.

The woman closed the distance between them and stretched her hand out to the confused teen. Ranma hesitated, only for a second.

'To be with Akane again... I would do anything. No. I will do everything.'

They slowly began walking towards the Way Gate, and Ranma turned to look upon the devastation he had caused. If he could learn to harness this new power, he would be closer to his goal.

"What's your name?" he asked as they stepped into the magical construct.

"Andariel," she answered.

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Author's notes:

Well, this is a second prologue. It's not long enough to be considered a first chapter and it is the introduction of our main character into this new and hostile world.

I want to get this out of the way now. I've changed the fic to "M" and have set a dark warning. As with the actual story of Diablo 2, this will be bloody and dark, and somewhat gruesome. If you don't like it, well, then. I'm sorry, but that is the mood the original story has, so that's the way I'm going.

Things will get interesting right? I mean, Ranma taking classes from the Maiden of Anguish? I honestly want to know how many of you guessed who she was.

Well, as always, time is a privilege I cannot indulge in often, so I took my time with this. I really like writing this one and have been rather surprised at the good response I've gotten.

I'm gonna finish TSS 04 before continuing this, but I think I'll add some more to AGDM as well.

Anyway, comments, criticism, flames, whatever, e-mail me at: or (Ff. Net, check profile for e-mails)

PS: Yes, I've changed my nickname, but it is still me.

Post revision: Very minor revision, mostly grammar and a couple of typos. If anyone thinks Ranma's a bit OOC, think that, at most, a couple of hours have passed since Jusendo. I attribute all (if any) anomalies in characterisation to shock.

Shishi houkoudan: Lion, howl, yell, roar, light emission, gun muzzle. So roughly, Roaring lion bullet blast. (Chi attack that is based on depression and despair.) 


End file.
